Performing sound imitation in differentiating stridor and wheezing inclinical practice

Noisy breathing is a common symptom of respiratory illnesses; wheezing and stridor are common sounds that need to be clarified during assessment of children with history of recurrent attacks of noisy breathing. The answers of non-english speaking families can be influenced by the used words to express wheezing and stridor in their language. The primary outcome of this survey based study is to assess if the sounds imitation of wheezing and stridor is a common practice by Arabic speaking pediatricians while assessing children with noisy breathing. A hundred fifty two arabic speaking pediatricians participated. Almost 25% and 5% of Arabic speaking pediatricians use sound imitation to express stridor and wheezing (respectively). Mainly due to their inability to express stridor/ wheezing in Arabic language, variable Arabic words are used to express both sounds interchangeably. The pediatricians have a major language barrier to express stridor and wheezing to their original language, sound imitation of both sounds is common practice and we suggest that it improves the communication between pediatricians and families.